Thursday, August 1, 2013

Et tu, Brute?

Pot legalization activists are running into an unexpected and ironic opponent in their efforts to make cannabis legal: Big Marijuana...

Medical marijuana is a billion-dollar industry ... and like any entrenched business, it’s fighting to keep what it has and shut out competitors. Dispensary owners, trade associations and groups representing the industry are deeply concerned — and in some cases actively fighting — ballot initiatives and legislation that could wreck their business model.
...

...their businesses — still illegal under federal law — benefit from exclusive monopolies on the right to sell legal pot... those same federal laws that prohibit growing, selling and using keep pot prices high.

This spring, the Medical Marijuana Caregivers of Maine joined the usual coalition of anti-pot forces that includes active law-enforcement groups, social conservatives and public health advocates to oppose a state bill that would legalize possession of small quantities of the drug.

Second, a short CATO article about drug war in Mexico and Friedman's ideas on marijuana legalization: http://www.cato.org/blog/milton-friedman-marijuana

Third, researchers at IZA explore the causation between medical marijuana and suicide rates. In their conclusion they also cite a study that can answer a million dollar question: What happens with alcohol consumption per capita when marijuana laws are passed? Here is the link: http://ftp.iza.org/dp6280.pdf

Thanks to a few abusers I am now moderating comments. I welcome thoughtful disagreement. I will block comments with insulting or abusive language. I'm also blocking totally inane comments. Try to make some sense. I am much more likely to allow critical comments if you have the honesty and courage to use your real name.

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About Me and This Blog

This is a blog of news, views, and commentary, from a humorous free-market point of view. After one too many rants at the dinner table, my kids called me "the grumpy economist," and hence this blog and its title.
In real life I'm a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution, and an adjunct scholar of the Cato Institute. I'm not really grumpy by the way!